Thursday, April 01, 2010

Fast asleep

Charlie is fast asleep next to me - curled up on his side with his Max collie dog and Alfie monkey cuddled tight to his poor, battered little chest.He really does seem so much more comfortable now two of his drains are out. We hope the other one can come out on Saturday, but some of the medical staff think that the tube may be blocked because the drainage tailed off quite quickly. This might be the case, I suppose, but it's been about 48 hours now since the drainage reduced, and I'm sure if Chas was carting 600mls of fluid around in his chest cavity he'd probably be showing some signs of trouble by now. So we'd appreciate any 'no fluid' positive thoughts you've got going spare, please!I don't think there are any plans to remove any more of the hardware tomorrow - there was some talk of pulling the pacing wires, but I think we'd rather leave them where they are and take them out along with the chest drain, rathe than subject Charlie to two procedures.One other thing - now Charlie's central line is out, we have to start doing his INR tests via finger prick in the morning. I'm not much looking forward to it, but hopefully he'll be his usual stoical self, and will let me jab him without 2much trouble.Other good news - Charlie has learned to swallow his tablets with water, after one of his little friends on the ward showed him how easy it was. This makes life much easier, because some of the liquid medicines taste foul - especially the warfarin - the tablets are brown, and when they are dissolved in water they look like liquid mud. Bleagh.One of the doctors came to see Charlie today, and brought him a brown paper bag full of his favourite jelly sweets. It was so kind of him, and we were really touched that he had bothered.Talking of gifts - I must just say another big thank you to everybody who has sent cards and parcels to Charlie while we've been here - the nurses keep telling us they've never had a patient receive so many letters! (Especially one all the way from America! Thanks again, Monica!) And I really must say thank you again for all the emails, texts and messages of support from all over the place. Pete and I are so grateful - your messages have really helped us to feel less alone through all of this. I have read so many of them out to Charlie, and he has been so pleased to hear how much all his friends are thinking of him.Here's looking forward to a good second day of April!

No comments:

About Me

Welcome to Charlie's News! Charlie was born on November 5, 2003, minus the left side of his heart - a complex congenital heart defect known as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. He had two open-heart surgeries in his first five months, and had his third stage Fontan completion in March 2010, aged six-and-a-half.
Charlie's heart is special - but not as special as he is!